“Cautious optimism” is how a new survey of real estate investors described the sector’s outlook for housing in 2026. It represents a “modest improvement” over last winter’s survey results from RCN Capital, a lender to home investors, and mortgage advisory firm CJ Patrick Co.
That being said, outlooks on current and future market conditions slipped lower by the end of the fourth quarter than they were in the previous quarter, suggesting that “cautious” may outweigh “optimism” in the immediate future for investors.
More than 34% of respondents to the Winter 2025 Investor Sentiment Survey reported no intention of buying more properties in 2026, up from 32% in the fall survey. Yet 12% of respondents said they intend to buy more properties in 2026 than last year, while slightly less than 34% plan to buy fewer, a quarterly improvement from 8% and 43%, respectively.
Recent reporting from real estate analytics firm Attom indicated that investors who purchase 11 properties or more in 2205 accounted for 6.6% of total home sales last year, the same share as 2024. All-cash home sales remained roughly level year over year in 2025, at 39.1%, compared to 39% in 2024.
About 46% of all respondents plan to buy between one and five properties, 17% said they plan to purchase between six and 10, and 4% said they plan to purchase 11 or more properties.
Market conditions loosened somewhat for homebuyers in 2025, as home-price appreciation cooled dramatically, more inventory came online and average 30-year fixed mortgage rates fell from near 7% at the start of the year to the low-6% range in December.
“All of these trends are favorable for both fix-and-flip and rental property investors,” said Jeffrey Tesch, CEO of RCN Capital, in a statement accompanying the survey results.
Fix-and-flip investors, who buy homes to renovate and resell for a profit, were notably more optimistic than rental investors about the 2026 housing market, however, with about 52% expecting market conditions to improve this year compared to 26% of rental investors. One-third of flippers expect the market to stay the same compared with half of rental investors who have that sentiment.
Amid these market expectations, almost 45% of rental investors plan to not buy any properties in the next 12 months, survey results indicated, compared with 26% of flippers — despite flippers reporting more difficulty finding profitable deals.
“This could be due to a perceived (and probably temporary) oversupply of rental units in the country, as a record number of apartments have come to market in the past 18 months,” the report suggested. Stalling rent growth and climbing vacancies dealt a double blow to rental investors in 2025, though their purchase activity last year proved resilient despite the headwinds.
Nevertheless, for the largest share of respondents from each investing category, 2026 purchase volumes are expected to track 2025’s, with 45% of flippers and 54% of rental investors expecting to buy about the same number of properties this year. Around 40% of both groups reported they will likely buy fewer properties than a year ago.
When it comes to the most pressing challenges that real estate investors expect to encounter in 2026, financing costs (58%), rising home prices (37%), competition from larger investors (29%) and lack of inventory (29%) continue to be the most commonly cited challenges, in line with previous survey results, the report said.
“Market dynamics like weakening demand from homebuyers, rising costs, higher finance charges and limited inventory have made things difficult for real estate investors over the past few years,” said Rick Sharga, CEO of CJ Patrick Co. “But fewer investors are finding it necessary to reduce sales or rental prices and many are reporting improvements in their local markets.”
“Perhaps investor behavior is showing us some early indications of a housing market finally in recovery,” added Sharga, exhibiting a little “cautious optimism” himself.
